Sherman Alexie could be considered one of the most influential Native American writers of all time. In Alexie's " How to Write the Great American Indian Novel", he uses a humor and stereotypes to help express the truth about our society and how Native American culture is viewed by our society's perspective. Although the subject he is writing about is not humorous at all, he is addressing and making aware that there is a problem and there is also a solution. If he uses humor to help present these problems and stereotypes, he can introduce the stereotypes without criticizing them. He uses humor because it is easier for the readers to understand what he is saying and he also uses humor as a self defense mechanism.
According to “19 Most Ironic Facts of all Time,” by Buzzfeed, in 1985, a man in New Orleans drowned at a party thrown by lifeguards. The party was thrown to celebrate a year at the pool with no drowning’s. As many know, life has many events that include irony. Irony could include families, vacation, or just strange things that happen throughout a family.
This story is written by Sherman Alexie and is a story of hope for the children of different ethnicity. Hope for them to merge in the American society. The author in the story presents himself as a child having a dream to blend in the American society and by sticking to his dream he grew among the children of his same background. Sherman is a Native American Indian and is expected to be slow and “stupid”. The story is interesting.
It is ironic for this character to say such a thing since home is a place of safety and the antebellum South was such a hard place for a black woman to be in. Butler presents some type of situational irony within this scene since, this place is the greatest danger for the character, by law. This character is a Black woman and in the antebellum South, to be a woman and black, is a dangerous combination.
It all comes down to discovering how we can win, even when the odds are against us. A major theme in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is never giving up. Junior starts life with serious brain damage and physical abnormalities. His family is poor. He is Indian, he doesn’t have access to the same level of schools, and health care as the white kids.
In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien describes how soldiers physically and emotionally adapted to Vietnam. In the chapters “The Dentist” and “Stockings,” he uses irony to accentuate these adaptations, in order to illustrate that for those who fought in the war coping was as essential as surviving. In “The Dentist,” Curt Lemon’s desire to be perceived as strong highlights his burrowed uncertainty of his courage.
(Baigell, 3) The clashes between Natives and settlers and enormous consequences, including bloodshed, the forced removal of Natives from their lands, and the establishment of settler dominance. (John P, 6) This exploring of history in a made-up story gave good understanding of how things that happened and the relationships between the groups changed what each group thought over many years. By following the stories of specific people across many generations, readers could really understand in a deep and human way the difficult, long-going conflict that lasted for centuries.
Faced with many obstacles from poverty to racial stereotypes, Junior must override them if he is to make his life better than that of fellow Indians. Interestingly, rather than letting the obstacles hold him back Junior understands that his destiny is in his own hands and he must celebrate who he is even if it means fighting. In the end, we see a boy who have managed to overcome all hardships to get to the top, even if it means making tough choices such as changing schools, therefore is could be seen that race and stereotypes only made Junior
Junior loses a lot of friends and family at the young age of fourteen. He gets bullied because he was born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull, but he has his best friend Rowdy there to help him. Junior realizes that he needs to leave the reservation to get a better life for himself. He goes to a new school off the
He knows that if his parents were not born into poverty, his mother would have gone to college, and his father would have become a musician. Additionally, on page eleven Junior says that his parents “dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.” Junior believes that he is trapped in this “circle” of poverty, and his dreams will be ignored just as his parents’ dreams had been. However, after Junior launches an old geometry book across a classroom, and it hits his teacher, Mr. P, in the face, Mr. P realizes something substantial about Junior: He has fought since his birth, beginning with the
Being a writer of many different styles, Sherman Alexie started off as a poet before writing novels and short stories. His poetic manner continues in the story “Indian Education”. He has a wide array of dry statements mixed with metaphors and statements that are not meant to be taken literally. The trend for each years is that he starts off dry and literal and ends poetic and metaphorical. His description of his interactions with the “white girl” in seventh grade is a great example.
Within the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, irony is used in order to establish themes of blindness, invisibility, and race. Irony is a literary device with which the author conveys an alternate meaning to the words than is actually said. There are different types of irony that are used in writing, although Ellison primarily uses two kinds: verbal irony and dramatic irony. Verbal irony is when words are used to convey something different than what is being said and dramatic irony describes a situation in which the audience has knowledge that the characters do not. Within the novel, Ellison uses these two types of irony in order to convey the aforementioned complex themes within the book through symbolism and through the narrator's interactions with other people.
In Sherman Alexie’s short stories (and poems), there usually three central themes that the story rotates. In this paper, I will be exploring how he (Alexie) explores the themes losing culture, a cycle of regret, and using drugs (mainly alcohol) to escape. In Indian Education, the short story, Alexie seems to show that whenever young Victor tries to express himself through his culture, he is punished. Take the section “First Grade” for example. In first grade, Junior (the main character and narrator) says that “The little warrior in me roared to life that day..” and makes comparisons to traditional Native American warriors, such as describing the brusies on the other boy’s face as “war paint” or how Junior chants “it’s a good day to die”, which is phrase typically associated with Crazy Horse, who was a Native American chief.
Despite the negative stereotype of American Indians, the objections and disapproval of fellow Natives, and the criticism of others, Sherman Alexie went on to become a successful writer that has inspired many. Alexie overcame many obstacles that would have deterred him from his goal, but he was able to remain steadfast and continue on in his pursuit of writing. As a result, he has published many literary works that include several short stories, poems, and a variety of novels. He allows his culture to seep into his writing, and continues to inspire young American Indians who also desire the path of knowledge.
In Thomas King 's autobiographical novel, The Truth About Stories takes a narrative approach in telling the story of the Native American, as well as Thomas King 's. The stories within the book root from the obstacles that the Thomas King had to face during his years in high school and his post-university life. These stories are told in a matter that uses rhetorical devices such as personal anecdotes & comparisons. "You 'll Never Believe What Happened" Is Always a Great Way to Start is about the importance, potential, and dangers of stories, specifically those of creation stories and how they can shape a culture, with the aim to share King 's urgency for social change with his readers King 's informal tone, lighthearted jokes, and effort to make his writing follow the style of native oral tradition as closely as possible, all help the reader understand the type of narrative he believes would be most beneficial for the foundation of a society. His unique style allows for the use of personal anecdotes and requires that he breaks the proverbial fourth wall to communicate with the reader directly, to create the conversational feel of the oral tradition.
